Not a Recap: Milwaukee 96, Cleveland 80 (or Injuries+Bad Roster Construction=Fail)
2015-01-01
Cleveland got smoked tonight in a game where they just could not put the ball in the bucket. Cleveland shot 34% while Milwaukee shot 44% from the floor, and Cleveland shot 8-31 from three while Milwaukee shot 11-25. The inability get open looks and to convert open three point tries when they did get looks was the difference in a game where Cleveland did not defend terribly, given the talent on the floor. From three, the Cavs were broke. Mike Miller went 1-6; Kyrie 1-7; Joe Harris 0-4 (two airballs!), Dion 0-2 (he did have to chuck one because of the shot clock). Only James Jones (3-6), and Delly (3-5) had decent nights for a team that is desperately relying on threes for points. Miller and Harris’ misses were especially painful. Brandon Knight, Giannis, and Mayo led the Bucks with 26, 14, and 15 respectively, copying the recent formula for beating Cleveland: get the ball inside, and then punish the Cavs lack of rim protection, or pass the ball till you get a wide open three.
I don’t know if it’s Blatt, age, or lack of talent, but something is causing the members of this team to shoot terribly from three. Is Blatt neglecting shooting drills? Is the team practicing too much? All I know is that David Griffin has put together a bench full of scrubs and over the hill players to go along with the Cavs “core.” Lou Amundson is inept on offense, and Joe Harris and Mike Miller are useless if they can’t hit threes. A.J. price was dropping 20 point nights for the Pacers and now looks lost on the court. Combine that with bad shooting and an absolutely awful third quarter that saw Cleveland score a mere seven points, and the Cavs were doomed . Only a heady night from Delly and a takeover attempt from Irving Kept the Cavs within striking distance. Irving had to go 9-23 to get to it, too. 2015, I hope you have great things in store for Cleveland, cause 2014 ended with a whimper.
agree with you on the big unless griff is waiting to pull off a blockbuster trade for a big
agree with above blogs—dion needs to show up big ( opportunity for valuable playing time or increased trade value ) —let’s see some of that ” ol fashioned ” pick-n-row with kyrie / love
They ALL need to show up . The above stats from all of the players shooting isn’t acceptable. We need everyone to contribute. We desperately need a BIG to just clog up the paint & get some rebounds. Isn’t there at least a D-leaguer out there, anywhere??
http://www.ohio.com/blogs/cleveland-cavaliers/cleveland-cavaliers-1.275356/hawks-109-cavs-101-jason-lloyd-s-31-final-thoughts-on-david-blatt-and-the-night-injuries-piled-up-1.554175?localLinksEnabled=false&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed
I found Lloyd’s write-up to be incredibly insightful. I also find Windhorst’s weekly podcast to be appointment listening.
The LeBron resting seems tactical to me. Spurs-esque. Duncan + Parker + Ginobili often miss chunks of the regular season to ensure full health of playoff run.
Great piece.
It’s starting to make sense now. I don’t like it . . . but it’s starting to make sense.
I wish the Cavs had drafted Drummond or Noel, then Wiggins and we’d grow as a team with those guys.
I think this is a good opportunity to figure out how to use Love.
Lebron’s lack of athleticism makes sense now. He’s been playing basically hobbled all season. He can take as much time as he wants off…and maybe he and Blatt can get on the same page about some things. Dion will get all the opportunity he needs to earn a big paycheck and/or bump his trade value in the coming weeks. I hope he’s ready to deliver.
goal / hope is that we are at least a 500 pct record when LeBron return—–main goal for the season should be similar to the spurs—-rest/ get players healthy / get younger players reps —be ready for april
not the news/ way we wanted to start 2015—
@ChrisFedor: #Cavs LeBron James will miss the next two weeks with knee and back issues, according to the team.
The highlight of this game had to be the 7 point 3rd quarter.
Have they fired that potato mike brown yet?
Side note: Kinda surprised Cavs haven’t brought someone up from D-league with all the injuries. Scott & Brown sure did in this all too common scenario of injury plagued team.
Pretty much hit the nail on the head on this one. Everyone can understand we are missing Lebron, Love, Andy. It makes sense to us. We get it. The declining shooting is a head scratcher. The 3 pointers was the one of the Cavs arsenal we prided ourselves about in the beginning of the season and what a delight it was to witness. Where did it go and when did it go M.I.A.? Please let this be on Cav’s 2015 resolution & bring it back. We miss you!
A building year is OK when your best players are first and second year, and you have good draft picks stashed. There will be no silver lining to a bad record, because the Bulls can swap first picks if they want, thanks to the insane Deng deal (worst trade since Ron Harper + 3 firsts for Danny Ferry).
So through 32 games we’re 18-14, 8 wins of which came when good health and decent shooting met for a couple weeks and shook hands. Since that streak we’re shooting one of the worst percentages in the league from the field, have lost 4 of our 5 legit starters for several games each, and we managed to squeak a comeback win over a decent Orlando team in a game that was fun to watch, we destroyed a very good Memphis team that was at the time in a similar situation as we are now (shooting slumps + missing starter), and… Read more »
You can’t put all the fault on Griffin for the lack of a bench, given he was held hostage to reserve two spots for Lebrons over the hill BFFs (Jones & Miller). You get what you pay for.
You can’t put all the fault on Griffin for the lack of a bench, given he was held hostage to reserve two spots for Lebrons over the hill BFFs (Jones & Miller). You get what you pay for.
Which, whatever. Still need to grab guys better than Lou Amundson. There were a dozen guys out there better than Amundson. And if you’re not going to play Alex Kirk when the team gets thin, why play him?